Setting a high bar on a debut album has always been a double-edged sword, as demonstrated here on A Hero's Death, which is a fine album that is nonetheless a step down from the booze-soaked sticky floors of Dogrel. Fontaines D.C.'s debut benefited from strong singles and a cohesive locational element to give it strength. Here the singles are not as strong, and the sweaty vibe from the debut is gone, as if someone has switched on the air conditioning. But their second attempt only falls short of greatness in a relative sense, as there is still plenty to love about the record.
It gets off to a great start with opener "I Don't Belong," which features Grian Chatten's trademark tar-covered vocals bouncing off a midtempo strut laid out by the rest of the band. The front half of the album keeps the momentum going, but the stakes are never really raised until "A Lucid Dream," which benefits from a pick-scraping breakdown toward the end. As the more melancholic numbers begin to emerge beginning with "You Said," they don't meet the standards of Dogrel's closer, "Dublin City Sky," save for "Oh Such a Spring," which delightfully glides through its chorus. However, the other three quieter tracks feel very surface-level, failing to muster the gravity they strive for. The strongest run on the record begins with the title track, "A Hero's Death," with its cooing catchiness leading into "Living in America" and its sense of displaced dread, before hitting the spritely, festival-ready "I Was Not Born." Although A Hero's Death does suffer from repetition and a lack of literacy, it remains fun enough; the mistakes it makes won't deter existing fans of the band, although it doesn't display anything new or exciting enough to propel Fontaines D.C. to any new heights.